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The quest for roses for poor soils all started quite innocently. I posted a David Austin Roses article about roses for poor soils on my #groundchat FaceBook page, and the initial response was less than positive. “Don’t you believe it,” …

Forsythia blooms heralding spring is longer being treated like a old wives tale. The blooms are an important phenological sign that spring is here and soil temperatures are ready for planting. What does the timing of forsythias blooms …

Hellebores are some of the earliest blooming flowers in our gardens. Searching for hellebore’s soil preferences takes us to the southern and eastern European mountains. The native soil and root morphology tells us what we need to know about growing …

Clematis, the Queen of Vines, is grown in gardens around the world. A few myths surround its growing conditions, particularly around the soils for clematis. Contrary to popular belief, there’s a clematis for almost every garden, including plant hardiness zones 1 as well as poor soils.

Grey water is touted as the “new” source of water for landscapes everywhere. But is it really? Like overblown promises, there are some caveats to this statement. And again, soil is being ignored and abused if grey water is used without thought to the household cleaners in them, which REALLY damage the soil.

Intense gardening resurrects in the fall. Maybe not as extreme as spring gardening, but still it feels intense after the last lethargic dog days of summer. For gardeners intent on improving their soil, there’s much we can do.